


A Kiss By The Book

by mccraeolson



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Theatre, Fluff, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Pining, Slight feminization, Theatre Star!Luke, jock!ashton, mild derogatory language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-22
Updated: 2015-03-22
Packaged: 2018-03-19 01:23:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3591069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mccraeolson/pseuds/mccraeolson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The school's theater is putting on a production of Romeo and Juliet, and being the theater's shining star, Luke is naturally cast as a lead role. Ashton is the school's most popular jock who is getting on the school's good side and attempting to stay out of trouble by auditioning for the school's play. Neither of them get the roles they expect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Kiss By The Book

**Author's Note:**

> don't really know what this is and i kinda really just wanna delete this from my life because wow what did i even just write ((((also can you tell i wrote a huge majority of this in one day because...))))))

It's auditions week. Luke has been waiting months for this time, and it's finally here. His school is putting on the production of Romeo and Juliet this year, of course they had to put on the school's version of Rafael and Jamie or something stupid for some copyright reasons. But mostly everyone just refers to it as Romeo and Juliet for the easiest sakes.

Luke glances to the posters that line the hallways, already being ripped down by the school's jocks. He didn't expect any more from them, to say the least. Though he had spent hours taping up the small pieces of purple paper, it didn't bother him to see them ripped down. You see, the school never really had the best reputation when it comes to theatrical productions. The jocks of the school pretty much take over. With a school that ranks second in the state in football and 14th in the nation in basketball and some other extensive ranking in every other freakin' sport, it's pretty hard to have any focus on a theater.

"Fucking move, faggot," someone shouts out as he walks into the school cafeteria, a large shoulder being pushed against Luke's considerably large but totally unmuscular shoulder. Luke just flinches toward the words and continues walking past, rubbing at his shoulder to simply attempt to ease the probably-soon-to-be bruise.

Luke is definitely used to this by now. For the 12 or something years he's been in school, he's always been different from the other kids. He's grown up a loner. Never until middle school did Luke have someone he could actually call a friend, and strangely, he's totally okay with this fact. Never being the type of extroverted person to begin with, he didn't even find a need for friends anyway except a waste of money on the holidays and a hassle to take care of in the complaint department.

There is one person that Luke can consider a friend, and that would be Michael. Even though they don't do sleepovers every weekend and go to movies or the mall together after school, they still consider each other best friends because really, they're the only ones that each other has. And anyway, Michael has bandaged Luke's broken nose umpteenth too many times (and vice versa) for them to be considered anything less. Both being ones to take more toward the loner side, they were used to this kind of hateful violence by now.

As soon as Luke sits down at his regular empty lunch table in the back, he sees Michael heading into the large hall, holding a hand over his nose and plopping down in the seat across Luke. Luke sighs and shoves a few fries into his mouth. Luke quickly examines Michael's face, which isn't even that bad. Nothing is bleeding, and there aren't even bruises forming yet. Things are actually looking good for him today.

Luke doesn't even ask before Michael starts explaining what happened. "They all said something about how I would pay more for this shit later," Michael shrugs and grabs some food from Luke's tray.

"This shit?" Luke questions, pushing his tray more toward Michael as a sort of apology for Michael's surely-aching face.

Michael accepts the tray a food and shoots Luke a simple smile. "Yeah. I think the offices are forcing Ashton Irwin to try out for the play or something. Some sort of school-community-service so he doesn't get kicked off the football team? I heard him yelling about it in English class to that other kid he always runs around with. They blame me for it, apparently, but I'm not even sure why. I mean, it's not like Ashton's ever beat one of us up, it's usually just his shitty friends who do," Michael speaks as he eats his fries, and it kind of grosses Luke out to the point that he has to look away while the older boy speaks.

"Is that even fair? They should send them all to some mental bettering facility. They're constantly beating on you, and that's gotta be caused by some sociopaths disorder," Luke sighs, placing his hands under his chin. "I bet they just let them slip because they're good looking and can play fucking football."

Michael nods slowly and doesn't say anything for the rest of lunch. Halfway because Luke hit the nail on the head with his last statement and halfway because there was simply nothing else to talk about between the two.

**....**

After school, Luke is happy to find himself sat in the back row of the balcony in the theater. While the school's theater is relatively small and probably not much larger than his mathematics classroom, he still feels like he is on top of the world when he sits up here.

"Luke!" He hears a sudden voice break him out of his daydreaming state, and glances over to the source of the voice, which is somewhere on the ground level.

Luke grins at Michael, who's yelling at him from the front row of the seats, holding up packets of paper, which must include scripts. Luke practically runs down the steps leading to the overlook and almost trips in the process, his legs moving faster than his mind could process as he ran to grab his script from Michael.

"Um, Michael...this is the wrong..." Luke trails off, flipping through the pages and reading over the pre-highlighted sections. "Juliet?"

"Yeah, apparently Feldy thinks you're fit for Juliet or something. Told me to tell you that you're a surefire hit for her after the cosmo class puts some makeup on you and fixes up a wig," Michael tries to bite back laughter at the look on Luke's face.

"I thought...what about Romeo?" Luke mutters, still flipping through the pages. He knew he would have a lead role. He had no doubt in his mind that he would. He was the theater's star. Well, considering the small amount of people in theater (four on a good day), he kind of had to be the theater's star.

Michael just shrugs and flips through his own script. "He wants me for Mercutio," the older boy mutters, mumbling some random lines to himself and giggling. "At least I'm a fun role and not a fucking drag queen. Can't wait to see who they cast as Romeo for you."

Luke rolls his eyes and falls back into the seat of the theater's front row, reading through the lines to himself. He gets halfway through the third page when a loud slam of the theater doors breaks his focus and he turns to look at the student walking in the theater.

And he can't say he was surprised to see who it was. Judging by Michael's sudden, tense stature, he was relatively surprised.

"This Romeo and Juliet auditions?" The loud, thick-accented voice booms out in the echoing room, obviously speaking toward Luke and Michael, considering they were the only ones in the theater.

"Um, yeah, it -" Luke begins, kind of scared of the jock and the way he's sauntering toward them.

"Where is everyone?" Ashton cuts Luke off as he drops his duffel bag onto the floor beside Luke. "Aren't there other people in this other than you two?"

"Um, typically we have...two or so more. Not many audition," Luke says, nodding slowly and glancing back down to his script.

"Ah, must be why they put me as Romeo. I expected to be some...tree or something. Not the fucking lead," Ashton laughs as he talks, and he sits down in the chair a few down from Luke, obviously not caring to sit too close to him.

Michael squeaks a little, which surprises Luke due to how quiet the boy had been since Ashton had walked in. "Romeo?" Michael asks, his voice still slightly quiet.

Ashton just nods and opens his script to the role description page and tosses it into Luke's lap where Michael and him both can see for themselves that, indeed, Ashton Irwin had been suggested for the role of Romeo. Luke stares at the page with disbelief and reads over the role picked slot probably fifteen times before he hands it back. He simple nods as he does so.

"I just hope there's at least a hot girl as Juliet. I'd probably piss myself if I had to kiss some freaky theater chick," Ashton sighs and slumps back into his seat, tossing the script onto the floor beside his duffel bag. Luke goes slightly pale at this.

**....**

Auditions went average, as they usually did. Only two other people showed up. They were both named Alex, but Luke was almost 70 percent sure one of them spelled their name different than the other, but he honestly couldn't pin point which.

Ashton didn't speak for most of auditions, especially after he learned that Luke was the only one auditioning as Juliet. He only spoke once to ask Mr. Feldmann if there were any girls auditioning.

Feldy only gave a shrug, but Luke knew the answer was no. It always was.

**....**

By the end of the week, they have an (almost) full cast set and scripts completely outlined. It was a quite productive week, honestly. Even with Ashton being totally incompliant to most everything and Luke working his ways grudgingly through playing a female character.

The other boy, Aleks (Luke had finally figured which was which), was given the role of Tybalt, and some parts of Friar Laurence while the other Alex was given the role of Benvolio and a few parts of Friar Laurence, as well. Michael was given Mercutio and some other random roles that he could handle here and there. Luke and Ashton were, in the end, given the roles of Juliet and Romeo.

A particular exchanging of words caught Luke's attention at the end of practice.

"Hey, Feldy, for uh...me and Luke, about the whole kiss scene, do we have to go through with that still?" Ashton speaks up, clutching his script to his chest a little too tight.

Luke lets out a slightly choked cough at the word kiss and looks up at Ashton immediately.

"I would like for you to make that happen on opening weekend...for those shows, definitely. Or something that at least looks like a kiss," Feldmann says, nodding slowly without looking up from his script in front of him.

Luke tries to ignore the look of pure disgust on Ashton's face, and he really can't tell whether it's because the football player has to kiss a guy or because he has to kiss Luke, but he's almost certain it's a good mix of the two.

**....**

"So, how do you feel about kissing him?" Michael blurts out to Luke as soon as everyone's left the theater and the two of them are the only ones left. Luke can feel his face heating up as soon as the words leave Michael's mouth.

He shakes his head slightly as he packs his already-wrinkled script into his bag. He makes a mental note to get some paper slips to put his script in to keep it from wrinkling so bad in the future. "Not sure yet. Bet he's good at it, though," Luke shrugs, slipping his backpack over his shoulders.

"Luke Robert Hemmings!" Michael practically scolds, sounding like a mother to the blond boy. "You want to kiss him, don't you? Ashton fucking Irwin. You want to kiss him!" Michael sounds incredulous as he speaks, but Luke knows that Michael can't deny the fact that Ashton's is attractive. And he hears that somewhere in Michael's voice.

"I don't necessarily want to kiss him, no. There are people I'd much rather kiss, like...Leonardo DiCaprio. I'm just saying, it won't be a huge inconvenience to kiss him," Luke shrugs like the things he's saying is nothing. Which it is: nothing. It really doesn't mean anything - just one kiss in one high school play. I mean, it's wrote in the script after all that they have to do it. "Besides, he's as straight as they come, so why should it matter if we kiss anyway? Not like it's gonna mean anything to him."

"Fine. Whatever. If you fancy kissing the guy that's let his friends beat both of us up for years then go ahead. Fine by me." Michaels pulls his backpack on now, too, and they're both headed out of the theater. They're usually always the last ones leaving rehearsal, which means they're typically the last ones leaving the school too since rehearsal always runs later than the other sports in the school.

Luke frowns at the way Michael talks about Ashton and falls into step with Michael on the way out to his car. "I mean, it's not he's ever done anything to us... I mean, yeah, maybe he's never stopped his friends, but...still. Who knows, maybe this whole theater thing can make him a better person or something?

"Luke, it's literally been a week since he joined theater. Give it until next week, and he'll start pinning you against lockers and kneeing you in the crotch. But, hey, maybe now with your little crush on him, you'll enjoy being pinned to the lockers," Michael laughs a little as his joke, but Luke doesn't find it so funny. He takes to shoving Michael as payback.

They both climb into Luke's car and Michael picks out some music for them. It didn't really come as a surprise to Luke when Michael selected Blink-182.

"So," Luke says, his head resting back against the seat while one arm hangs from the window, even though it was too cold outside and too dark to enjoy the window being rolled down, Luke always insists on having the windows down. And if that has some to do with the fact that the windows will never completely roll up due to how crappy they are, then nobody has to know. "Since you're pestering me about Ashton, am I allowed to pester you about Calum?"

Michael immediately groans as he notices where this conversation is headed. He simply turns the radio up in attempts to drown Luke out and probably pretend like he didn't even heard the boy's name mentioned.

"Michael!" Luke laughs out slightly as he tries to maneuver his way out of the school's parking lot. "You've been crushing on the guy for, what, two years now?"

"My crush on Calum is way different than yours on Ashton! Calum has never even punched me. He's never said anything mean, at all. I'm pretty sure he's never even hurt a fly," Michael gushes out, his head falling back to rest against the glass of the window.

"Ashton's never punched me either! Maybe he  _has_  said a few rude words, but who hasn't? And don't you dare say Calum."

"Okay, but at least Calum is nice."

"I'm sure Ashton can be nice."

Michael just groans and pulls out his phone, no doubt ignoring Luke now. He did this quite often. He would just pull out his phone and use it as a way to ignore Luke. "Let's see," Michael suddenly speaks out, scrolling through his phone. He clears his voice in an obnoxious way and peers closely at his phone, apparently reading something off for Luke, " _'I love puppies so much. Can somebody please buy me ten?'_  a real life tweet by Calum Hood. Now, let's see a real life tweet by Ashton Irwin. ' _Why the fuck is theater even a thing? So boring. And gay as hell._ _Also, fuck Luke Hemmings. He sucks.'_ Then he put a fire emoji beside the fist emoji. Did I mention Calum used the sparkley hearts emoji? Because he did."

"You made that up," Luke groans as he takes a right turn into Michael's neighborhood. "Neither of them tweeted those things, and you're going to hell for lying."

"Okay, fine. True, true, and half true. But still, you've got to admit, Calum is a nice guy. Ashton? Not so much," Michael says, holding his hands up in front of him.

"And you've got to admit that you're way too caught up in good guy, bad guy. Ashton is a nice person, I'm sure of it," Luke whines as he pulls into Michael's driveway and slams the breaks a little.

"Okay, fine. Show me Ashton is a nice guy, and I'll ask Calum out on a date. Fucking fine, make it a bet," Michael says, opening the car door and grabbing his backpack from the back seat.

"What? What do you even mean?" Luke stutters out, peering up to look at Michael.

"I don't know-figure out. Just show me he's a good guy. Find a way," Michael says before he slams the car door and sends Luke a thumbs up behind him as he walks to his front door.

**....**

"Let's cut to Act 1, Scene 5," Feldmann booms out from the balcony of the theater, holding up a script and shaking it.

Luke's breath hitches slightly at that as he watches everyone take their places on stage. He takes his backstage, waiting for his cue to come on. Ashton doesn't show any look of worry at the upcoming scene, and the blond boy isn't even sure if the curly haired one knows what scene they're doing since he's so clueless half the time.

Luke watches from backstage, mesmerized by how nicely Ashton flows through his parts. It was as if he spent hours rehearsing, which surprised Luke, really, due to how offset he seemed by the whole theater thing. Luke is snapped out of his thoughts by his cue to enter stage and he comes on, his script dropped down by his side. If Luke had any scenes memorized, it would definitely be this one.

Ashton's calm composure from the past exchanging of words with Aleks, who plays as Tybalt, was now lost as he stuttered through the lines, taking a few deep breaths before restarting his line.

"If I profane with my unworthiest hand with this holy shrine; the gentle sin is my lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss," he says, glancing up to meet Luke's eyes only when he finished off the words.

"Good pilgrim," Luke speaks confidently, his script still hanging down by his side. His voice was slightly high as he spoke, trying to make himself at least half worthy for the role of Juliet. "You do wrong with your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this; for saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss."

Ashton smiles at Luke and his confidence. It apparently rubs off a little as Ashton drops his script down to his side as well, booming out his next line. "Have not saints lips? And holy palmers' too?"

"Lips that they must use in prayer," Luke lets out a slight giggle at this line, biting down on his bottom lip to suppress the full on laugh.

"Oh, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do. They pray? Grant thou, lest faith turn to despair," Ashton acts out the line perfectly, his tone changing into a quite cheeky one with the last words, and Luke is shocked really, at how great Ashton is with the whole scene.

Luke takes a slight step toward the older boy and almost mumbles his next line, "Saints do not move, though grant for prayers sake."

"Then move not," Luke swears that he leaned in with these words, "while my prayer's effect I take."

Ashton backs up promptly as soon as the words are out of his mouth and breaks character as soon as he snapped into it. He glances down to the script. "Uh, here's the...um, part where it says I kiss you. So there's that."

"Don't you think we should..." Luke trails off, glancing down at his own script. It feel so odd being out of character now, and speaking to Ashton, too.

"I can just pick up after the kiss, yeah?"

Luke nods quickly, like he totally wasn't thinking that Ashton was actually going to kiss him. He knew that wouldn't happen. Totally. Definitely. For sure.

Ashton clears his throat and picks back up into the accented-script reading. "Thus, from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged!"

Luke smiles a little at how giddy Ashton speaks and nods to himself, "Then have my lips the sin that they have took."

"Sin from thy lips? Trespass sweetly urged. Give me my sin again," Ashton breaks his character again and holds up the script, as he did only three lines ago. "And here we kiss again."

Luke nods a little, as if he didn't know. "Yup. Guess we'll work on that whole thing later?"

And Luke really didn't mean for it to be a joke, but apparently Ashton definitely thought so by the booming laugh he lets out. "Good one, Hemmings. By the way, you did nice. You're really good at the whole Juliet thing. I was kind of surprised, but like, wow. For my first theater experience, you're definitely making it fucking hilarious."

And Luke didn't really know if he should be really offended by this statement or really happy that he was making theater at least some experience for the older boy. But he just nodded a little and made his way off stage. He had never been so happy for it to be the end of rehearsal before.

**....**

The next month of rehearsals go on about the same as far as Romeo and Juliet's great Act 1, Scene 5 is concerned. Every day is about the same; Luke and Ashton rehearsing perfectly up until the actual moment they kiss, Ashton shying away and breaking character to awkwardly get past the kiss, and Luke being completely shot down.

The blond boy even suggested a stage kiss one day, where their lips are blocked by their thumbs, but Ashton shook the idea off before Luke could even finish his suggestion.

Michael definitely took all of this and used it to make fun of Luke for thinking that Ashton had a nice side. But Luke refused to believe all of Michael's antics - he totally knew that Ashton was nice somewhere deep down, god dammit!

And Ashton mostly stayed away from the topic of Act 1, Scene 5 if he could. Especially where Luke and the word kiss were concerned.

So, when Feldy approaches both Ashton and Luke during a break at rehearsal with a script in hand opened to the specific portion of the play they both mainly strayed away from, Ashton announces he's off to the bathroom before the director can even get a word out.

"Not so fast," Feldmann pulls Ashton back and asks him to sit in the chair beside Luke, holding the script out in front of both of them. "Look, I understand you guys may have differing sexual orientations, or whatever you call it now a days, but you're going to have to get past that. Whether it takes you guys putting saran wrap over your lips and practicing that way or even doing a stage kiss, I need that kiss in there. It's two seconds of your life, and I promise, the world won't stop turning if you kiss another guy, okay?"

Ashton just nods and pushes up past Feldy, mumbling something about going to the bathroom. He didn't return to rehearsal after that.

**....**

"So, what did Feldy say to you and Ash-hole?" Michael snickers at his clever nickname for Ashton, and Luke just rolls his eyes, grabbing up the bag Ashton left when he left the theater earlier in practice.

"Just said we have to do the kiss. He's really stuck on getting that kiss scene in there," he mumbles as he sifts through the bag until he finds a wallet and a license, reading off Ashton's address. "Do you think I should return this to him? I mean, it's kind of important."

Michael shrugs, looking over at the license. "That's a bad photo," Michael laughs, pulling out his phone, no doubt attempting to take a picture of the license photo.

"Shut up, you dick. Nobody's license photo is ever good. I think he looks nice, though," Luke huffs, shoving the license back into the wallet and tucking it securely into the back before Michael can make fun of anything else.

"You're whipped already, how cute," Michael gushes, batting his eyelashes and giggling.

Luke just sighs and holds Ashton's bag over his shoulder. "Are you coming with me to return this stuff?"

"Nah, I'll let you two have your alone time. Just please promise me you'll use protection," Michael scolds, following Luke out to his car.

There are times when Luke really has the urge to punch Michael. Now is definitely one of those times.

**....**

After dropping Michael off, Luke makes his way to Ashton's. And he is extremely glad that he knew the way to the neighborhood Ashton lives in. It definitely saves him some time from getting lost and breaking curfew more than he already is.

Once he pulls in, he grabs the bag and makes his way up the path that leads to the front door. He's very surprised with the nice-ness of the house, in general. He can definitely tell that one of Ashton's parents has a nice liking to gardening and flowers, judging by the floral arrangements lining the walkway. That, or they pay a lot of money for a lawn-caretaker. And judging by the size of the house, they can definitely afford that.

He rings the doorbell and holds the bag down by his feet.

"Hello?" A nice voice answers, as the door opens and Luke's met with a young girl, who doesn't look much older than 13, but definitely younger than him. "Are you one of Ashton's friends?"

Luke shakes his head. "Not really, no. Just know him from theater. He, uh, he left his bag-"

The girl interrupts Luke by holding up a finger and shutting the door halfway before turning around over her shoulder and yelling out Ashton's name louder than Luke had ever heard any teen girl yell before.

She turns back to Luke and smiles sweetly, which Luke finds odd since just seconds ago she was angrily yelling. "He'll be down in a second." She slams the door in his face.

And if Luke thought his own family was strange, he's definitely having second thoughts now.

He hears some back-and-forth yelling behind the door before it's opened and he's met with Ashton, in all his glory, standing in front of him with a slight scowl. "Yeah?"

"I uh-you...you left your bag," Luke holds it out in front of him, blushing and suddenly feeling a little stupid for coming to Ashton's house. He shouldn't have done this.

"So...you brought it to my house?" Ashton asks like it's funny, a smile breaking out onto his face.

Luke just sighs and sets it down at his feet and turns around on his heel, suddenly extremely embarrassed for everything.

"Wait, Luke, hey," Ashton shuts the door behind him and runs down the path that Luke has already made his trip halfway down. "Thanks, for um, bringing my bag. That was nice of you."

Luke turns over his shoulder and gives a small smile and a nod to Ashton. If he thought he felt awkward earlier, this is definitely ten times worse.

"Um, wait," Ashton mumbles, dropping the bag he held in his hand and kneeling down to dig through it. He pulls out a black iPhone and begins swiping through it. "Put your number in? That way if I like, leave something again..." Ashton trails off, biting down on his lip as he offers his phone over to Luke, which is already opened up on the New Contact screen.

And yeah, Luke totally feels awkward now. He also totally feels like this is some joke, and Ashton is gonna take his number and prank call him stupid things every night. He knows that this is not Ashton Irwin doing something nice, because it just can't be. That's just not Ashton Irwin.

But under all these doubts Luke has, he has hope. He believes that yeah, maybe this is Ashton Irwin attempting to make friends with Luke and attempting to do something nice. It could be a change.

"Sure, yeah," Luke mumbles, nodding too quickly as he grabs Ashton's phone with a slightly shaky hand. He enters in his phone number and has to retype the last digit three times because he kept messing up, but he eventually hands it back over to Ashton with a smile.

"Sweet. I mean, yeah, cool," Ashton laughs, and Luke swears he sees a blush form on Ashton's cheeks. But that's definitely from the cold night air hitting his cheeks. Totally. Definitely. For sure.

"See you at rehearsal tomorrow, " Luke gives a small wave before he turns back over his shoulder and makes his way back to his car.

And as soon as he gets home, his phone dings with a new message from Ashton. And even thought it's just a simple  _'Hey, Ashton here :_ _-)',_ he kind of erupts into butterflies and stupid smiles because yeah, that was totally fucking cute. And yeah, maybe he did have a crush on the stupid jock asshole. But Luke could tell that Ashton was different. At least, he would be different.

**....**

"Luke, I swear to God, if you do not stop giggling at your phone and start cutting these fucking fabrics, I will take your phone and throw it out the window and into a river," Michaels sighs heavily, throwing a pattern packet a Luke and hitting him square in the face.

"Okay, okay, Jesus," Luke says, locking his phone dramatically and waving it in front of Michael's face before slamming it down onto the carpet of the theater classroom. It isn't really the theater classroom, actually. It was the old Personal Fitness class before the school decided they needed a bigger room for Person Fitness, for some god damned reason. But Luke doesn't really complain because hey, at least theater got a classroom out of it.

"Who have you even been texting all day, anyway?" Michael asks cutting some of the scraps of the frilly fabric out to glue on the collar of his costume. "Isn't your mom at work during these hours? And usually when you text Jack and Ben you're all scowley, not giggly and stupid."

"Oh, nobody. Just my cousin," Luke says, shrugging a little. He grabs a piece of the purple satin for his Juliet dress, and kind of groans at the pattern that was picked out for his dress, because yeah, it's a total fucking full length gown. "Can you believe I have to wear a dress? I mean, like, at least I don't have to wear high heels," Luke says quickly, trying to stray the conversation from his texting habits.

Just as he finishes speaking, his phone dings and Michael gives him a look that Luke knows isn't a good sign. And before Luke can even do anything about it, the older boy is reaching across all the supplies in between them and grabbing Luke's phone, his eyes growing wide at the text.

"You're texting Ashton Irwin?" Michael practically screams, gasping a little as his eyes read over the message. One of the Alexes looks over at the pair, no doubt judging them for either their poor sewing skills or the big scene Michael is making. "Wow. I knew you and him were flirting on stage, being the lead couple and all, but I didn't know you were flirting in real life too," Michael rolls his eyes, tossing the phone back to Luke.

"We are not flirting. We're friends, Michael," Lukes grabs his phone and shoves it into his pocket and mutes the sounds, going back to cutting at the purple satin.

"Just be careful," Michael says, his words now becoming slightly serious. Luke looks up to meet his eyes and rolls his own at Michael's words.

"We aren't even-"

"Be careful, Luke." They don't really say anything else for the rest of class except for a few exchanges of words asking for different materials and scissors and such, and Luke really takes the time to think about what Michael said. Does he really have to be that careful around Ashton Irwin?

**....**

"I think I'm going to die," Ashton complains, his fingers tapping at the floor to the beat of the trumpet music playing in the background. "How much time is even left of this rehearsal?"

"About thirty minutes, I think?" Luke answers, kind of wishing he had a wrist watch right now. Honestly, every time he goes shopping he means to buy one, but it's always a last-priority thing until he actually needs one. He makes a mental note to set a reminder on his phone to buy a wrist watch later. "This has definitely been the most boring rehearsal yet."

"Says you to the guy who hasn't even had a scene all rehearsal." Ashton lays back against the wall, staring straight toward the stage, where a few students from the school's band were auditioning for trumpet parts in the play.

Luke only recognizes one of them, Calum Hood, and that's only because Michael has had a crush on the poor guy for years. He's apparently a really good trumpet player, and it's pretty surprising since he's also really good at football and also really popular in Ashton's crowd of friends. And, according to Michael, he's  _like the hottest and nicest guy in school_. All around, he seems like a pretty good guy. And Luke can totally see it as he sits here, watching Calum play his guts out for auditions.

"Hey, I've only had, like, one line," Luke laughs, shoving Ashton a little back toward the wall. Luke is kind of surprised, really, how much their friendship has grown over the past week. Since last week when Luke gave Ashton his number, the two have texted nonstop and they've hung out a lot more at rehearsals. It definitely helped with their stage chemistry, too.

"One line is better than no lines, Hemmings," Ashton states, matter-of-factly.

Luke just rolls his eyes and continues watching trumpet-god Calum push the little buttons on the top of his golden instrument like he's just walking through the park. Really, he makes it look easy and it makes Luke a little uncomfortable. He chooses to just look away and focuses on some dirt patch in the carpet.

"So, um, are you ready for dress rehearsal this weekend?" Ashton says, like he's trying to clear some awkward silence. Even though there really wasn't an awkward silence. Luke has found that there's really no such thing as an awkward silence with Ashton, as cheesy as that may sound.

"I guess. As ready as I'll ever be to wear a dress, hair extensions, and makeup," Luke laughs through his words, making it come out like he's joking even though he's totally a hundred percent serious.

Ashton lets out a loud, booming laugh, and his eyes crinkle up at the sides when he grins, and Luke really wishes he could make Ashton laugh like that again. Because he's really beautiful when he does anything, but when he's laughing he's some type of beautiful to the extreme. Feldmann sends Ashton a curt glare, in a way of telling him to  _shut the hell up_  and the curly hair, still crinkle-eyed boy clamps a hand over his mouth.

"Really, though. At least I don't have to wear panties," Luke says, and he really didn't mean for it to be funny but apparently Ashton thought otherwise, and he's biting down on his knuckle now to keep the loud guffaw from escaping his lips. Luke finds this incredibly endearing.

"Stop being so fucking funny, Hemmings. You're gonna get us kicked out of the play. Then Aleks and Alex would have to be the leads, because we both know Michael's not gonna make it," Ashton shoves Luke playfully, still grinning from Luke's lame jokes.

And yeah, Luke knows that he's beat Michael in his bet. Ashton is definitely a good guy, and Luke definitely has a huge crush on him.

**....**

"Eyes, look your last, and arms, take your last embrace! And, lips, seal the doors of breath with a righteous kiss. A dateless bargain to engrossing death," Ashton speaks loudly, to Luke as he lay in the floor, Juliet already asleep from the apothecary's medicine. Luke expects it when Ashton skips over the kiss they are meant to share at the scene. "Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury-"

"Irwin! Hemmings!" Feldy booms. Luke's eyes open to see Feldmann strolling toward the stage, his script tossed somewhere off to the side. "Do you realize that this week is our final week before our first show? We have one week until the show."

Luke swallows hard and glances up to Ashton, who is now sitting up on his knees. Luke pushes himself up off the floor so he is sitting. "Yes, sir," they both say at the same time, nodding a little.

"That means you have a week to get that kiss in there. It's theater, okay? You aren't kissing each other, your characters are kissing each other. Do it for the love of Romeo and Juliet, okay?" Feldmann takes a deep breath in and pinches the bridge of his nose as he walks back to his spot in the back of the theater, clapping his hands together to pick up back where they left off.

And Luke really doesn't expect it when warm lips are pressed against his own for a short moment. He really, really, really doesn't expect it. His eyes don't even have time to flutter shut before Ashton is pulling back and stuttering through his lines, but everything is white noise around him, the feeling of warm lips on his own still tingling.

And Luke almost misses his cue to wake up when Aleks comes out, now playing the role of Friar Laurence.

Luke sits up at his cue, some of his long wig getting stuck in his face and he has to push it back, totally ungracefully. He makes a mental note to pin the wig up for the actual show. "Friar, where is my lord? I do remember well where I should be, and there I am. Where is my Romeo?"

Aleks gives his speech back to Luke, and Luke just watches Ashton, comfortably acting through his death. Luke grasps Ashton's hands, hoping that this is okay. And his mind races with what is about to happen. Should he even kiss Ashton? Should he not?

"What's here? A cup, closed in my true love's hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end: And you have drunk all, and left no friendly drop to help me after? I will kiss thy lips; maybe some poison yet doth hang on them to make me die with a restorative." Luke takes in a deep breath and leans down, his eyes fluttering shut this time when his lips come close to Ashton's. But before Luke can press his lips to Ashton's, the older boy turns his head quick and Luke's lips instead land on his cheek, a quick kiss pressed to the soft skin. And Luke doesn't think much of it, because really, did he expect Ashton to want to kiss him again?

"Thy lips are warm," Luke mumbles, leaning back and looking over Ashton.

They continue through the scene and finish off the play, Feldy giving a loud clap at the end and a big congratulatory speech to Ashton and Luke. Luke tries to ignore the way Michael is eyeing him from backstage, no doubt having a series of words and questions lined up for Luke about the kiss shared. Luke also tries to ignore the way Ashton won't stand anywhere near him or make any eye contact for the rest of rehearsal.

**....**

Ashton doesn't show up to the next two rehearsals, and that really scares Luke since it's opening week, and they don't have any more rehearsals until their show in only one day. And Luke really can't help but feel like it's up to him to fix this issue because for one, he's probably the cause of it, and two, he's probably really the only person who can at this point.

So that's how Luke finds himself driving to Ashton's house late on Thursday night, because  _goddammit Ashton, Friday night is opening night_.

He gets to Ashton's house, and the same girl opens the door that did last time, and Luke is almost sure she's Ashton's sister. He remembers Ashton mentioning her a few times, but he can recall her name for sure.  _Laura...Lisa...Luna..._

"Hey, Ashton's friend," she greets him, opening the door and walking back to wherever she came from.

Luke furrows his eyebrows and peers around the door. Yeah, this family is so odd. "Um, is Ashton home?"

"Upstairs. Door covered in stupid stickers. You can't miss it," she calls out from what Luke assumes to be the living room.

He takes in some type of deep breath and heads into the Irwin household, shutting the door behind him and glancing up at the large, open ceiling. The house is really, really nice. And it kind of intimidates Luke. As if Ashton doesn't already do that enough for him. He makes his way up the staircase, careful not to lean too much on the stair railing because he's pretty sure it's made of something more expensive than his life.

He finds Ashton's room easily, as his sister had said, the door is covered in stickers. Luke can hear music coming from his room, and he's kind of too awe-struck by all the stickers to even recognize the song.

But when he does recognize the song, he almost turns around and heads back down the stairs because surely he's got the wrong room. Possibly even the wrong house. Because why would Ashton Irwin, of all people, be listening to  _West Side Story_? He was practically forced into the school play, and here he is, listening to Tony sing for Maria, in a Broadway classical.

Luke hesitates a moment before he gently knocks on the door and he hears the music's volume soften and a creak of a bed and footsteps against the hardwood. And yeah, Luke is a little nervous. But for what? All he's doing is telling Ashton what he missed at rehearsal and letting him know they need him for the show tomorrow. Totally. That's completely it. That's all. Everything.

"What'ya want, Lozza?" Ashton groans out as he opens the door, only fully realizing that's it's not his sister who is knocking on his door when it's fully open and Luke is in his view.

"I uh - you weren't..." Luke stutters, lost for his words as Ashton blinks at Luke.

"Who let you in?" Ashton asked, turning back into his room and shutting off the music and quickly grabbing the door before Luke even has a chance to see into Ashton's room and shutting in behind him, leading them out into the hallway.

"Your sister...I think. Dark haired girl, really loud," Luke shrugs, letting out a small laugh at Ashton's reaction to his description of his sister. Apparently it was totally accurate at the way Ashton giggles.

"That would be the one and only Lauren Irwin. Always letting strange boys into the house and nearly sending them deaf in the process," Ashton rolls his eyes as he leans back against his door.

"Um, but... I just came by to say we missed you at rehearsal," Luke says, speaking a little too fast that he barely even catches what he says himself. He briefly wonders why they're still standing out in the hallway and why Ashton won't let him in his room, and also why Ashton was listening to damn West Side Story.

"Oh, yeah, thanks. I just got a little caught up I guess...completely slipped by me that we even had rehearsal. Promise I'll be there tomorrow night," Ashton says, glancing down to the floor as he speaks.

"You better," Luke grins. And there's a little awkward silence that follows. Prior to this conversation, Luke would have thought that there was no such thing as awkward silence between him and Ashton because he's just that fucking cheesy, but now he knew there was definitely awkward silence between them. That's definitely what this break in conversation is. And Luke almost considers turning and running down the fancy staircase, but he knows that he has much more he needs to say.

"Is that, um, all you had to say?" Ashton asks, after about a minute passes of them both avoiding eye contact and bouncing on their heels in sync.

"Well, I actually..." Luke trails off, trying to find the exact words to say. "Did my kiss suck?"

He can tell Ashton wasn't expecting that blunt of a question by the look on his face, but the look of shock is quickly replaced by something Luke can't quite read, something that he hasn't really ever seen on Ashton before. "No, Luke. God, no, what are you even talking about?" Ashton shakes his head quickly. "Here, um, let's go in my room, and we can...talk about that, yeah?"

Luke nods a little too quickly as Ashton turns to open the door, but before he opens it, he turns back to Luke. "Um, sorry for lying...I guess," he says, and before Luke has time to question this, Ashton is opening the door, and Luke definitely has to bite back the little shocked noise that escapes his lips upon seeing the posters covering Ashton's walls.

There's one wall that Luke swears is completely covered with Wicked memorabilia with maybe a few Phantom of the Opera things. Another wall is completely decked out with West Side Story. Luke can immediately tell that West Side Story is Ashton's favorite. And another wall has almost every other Broadway play that Luke can think of. It's all covered with tickets and signed shirts and playbills and posters. It's kind of insane, really, and Luke doesn't even know what thoughts are going through his mind.

"So, you weren't really forced to join the school's play, were you?" Luke says, his words all soft as he looks over the Wicked wall, his fingers tracing the signed playbill.

"Not particularly," Ashton sighs out. "You aren't uh...gonna make fun of me now, are you?"

Luke look incredulous as he turns around to face Ashton, who's now sitting back on his bed, looking more vulnerable than Luke's ever seen him. And if that isn't the cutest thing Luke's ever seen, then he really doesn't know what else is.

"Why would I make fun of you? Do you realize I grew up loving this stuff, still love this stuff... and this is, like, the coolest thing I've ever seen." Luke continues running his hand over the signed shirts and randomly signatures items as he turns to look at Ashton. "Besides, I knew you had to have some deep love for acting. You don't just get the skills you have overnight, you know. And you had way too much Romeo and Juliet memorized the first day for me to believe you weren't interested in the play."

Ashton laughs and scoots over on his bed, making room for Luke to come sit before he pats the spot beside him. "Thanks, I guess, for being so nice to me," Ashton says, shaking his head as he lets it fall back to rest against the head board of his bed.

"You're welcome? Even though it's typically common courtesy," Luke laughs, taking a seat on the opposite side of Ashton's bed, bundling his legs up close to him.

"Yeah, but not when it's someone who's been an asshole to you for years. Honestly, I'm so fucking mean, I don't understand why you even give me the time of day," Ashton rubs at his eyes, and Luke can tell that he's about to start crying. And that definitely pulls something in Luke's heart strings.

"Well, some people are worth second chances," the younger boy mumbles, his words barely heard.

Ashtons looks up at this, his eyebrows pushed together. He shakes his head for a moment, as if he really can't believe that someone would be nice to him. And honestly, he probably can't, and even though that really shouldn't hurt Luke as much as it does, it really does kill him inside.

"You know, your friends aren't going to hate you if you say you actually enjoy theater. You don't have to make up a stupid story to act in a play. Because you're damn good at it, and if they can't see that you have a real talent, then the joke's on them, yeah? And being in the play tomorrow won't kill whatever reputation you have. Because if you enjoy it, then is it really worth hurting your own happiness just to please someone else's made up idea of who you are?" Luke lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding in as he speaks, his words all rambled together, and he isn't even sure of what he just said, but he knows he said something right by the way Ashton just smiles and nods in response.

"Thank you, Luke," Ashton says under his breath, smiling up at Luke. "Thank you a lot."

"Stop thanking me," Luke says, humbling himself as he scoots a little closer to Ashton.

"But you deserve it."

"Just common courtesy," Luke shrugs, standing up from the bed before he does something he regrets like fucking kissing Ashton Irwin, because yeah, he looks really kissable right now-all vulnerable and innocent and looking up at Luke with wide eyes.

"See you tomorrow, Luke," Ashton says, giving a small wave and a gentle smile and Luke is kind of glad that Ashton is saying goodbye, because Luke was totally definitely about to kiss him before he could even help himself.

"See you tomorrow, Ashton," Luke smiles and shuts the door behind him. And as he's walking down the fancy staircase, he swears he hears the West Side Story soundtrack resume and Ashton's voice singing along to it.

And he swears he's not falling for the asshole who isn't so much of an asshole now.

**....**

"Is lover boy showing up today?" Michael questions, brushing some of the weird face powder that always makes Luke cough over his cheeks.

As if right on cue, Ashton comes storming into the dressing room, which is actually just the school's locker room, with his costume in hand. "Sorry I'm late," Luke can hear him exclaim to Feldy, who is no doubt scolding him for missing rehearsals and showing up late on opening night. But all Luke can think about is how proud of Ashton he is for actually showing up.

Luke scoots over on his bench in front of the mirror to make room for Ashton, who scoots himself right in between Luke and Michael, like he definitely belongs there. And somewhere inside of Luke, he really believes that Ashton does belong there.

"What's up with you?" Luke nudges Ashton, taking a quick notice of his flushed face and shaken composure as he attempts to apply the eye liner to his lids, totally failing but not really caring. It was just stage makeup.

"Just running late," Ashton shrugs, leaning his chin on his palm as he watched Luke apply his makeup, giggling at the sight. "You know, you look like a proper girl. Maybe I won't struggle with kissing you now."

And if Luke wasn't offended by the fact that Ashton wouldn't kiss him before, he definitely fucking was now. Because not only was that sentence completely offensive in the fact that he told Luke he looked like a proper girl when his makeup isn't even halfway done, but he also just said he struggled with kissing the real Luke. And any doubts (hopes) that Luke had about Ashton's sexuality were totally fucking blown out the window now.

Luke just laughs a little and tries not to let it be shown how much he took that to heart as he finishes up on the blush around his cheeks.

**....**

Luke swears in all his years of theater, he's never been this nervous for a performance before. Not when he was the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera or when he was Peter Pan in Peter Pan or even when he was a mouse in Cinderella. He's never been this nervous at all.

And he swears that it has nothing to do with Ashton Irwin. Okay, so maybe a little.

His nerves don't really set into full effect until it's his cue to come on stage for Act 1, Scene 5. And he knows that him and Ashton have rehearsed this a thousand times before, but this is different. There are people watching. They have to kiss. People are going to watch them kiss. And even though the people watching the play are just family members and friends of the cast, and there's really only about 15 or so people out there, that still sets something off inside Luke.

They both move through their lines perfectly, a good mix of witty and flirty added to their voices.

"Then move not," Ashton says, and Luke takes a deep breath in because, yeah, it's about it happen, "while my prayer's effect I take."

Then Ashton is kissing Luke. But this kiss isn't like the first they shared. This is definitely different. Luke's hand touches Ashton's side and Ashton's hands are both cupped around Luke's jaw, and Luke swears to himself that there are fireworks going off somewhere in his brain, and it's not just some cheesy saying anymore because the fireworks are still exploding somewhere deep inside of him. Ashton pulls away after a short moment, they both only see each other for that second. There's nobody else in the room for that second.

"Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged," Ashton speaks loudly, his composure recollected, and Luke inwardly praises him because he's very talented to go from a kiss like that to such confident words. Luke gives him total props for it.

"T-then have my lips... the sin that they have took," Luke says, only gaining confidence halfway through the sentence and really cursing himself for stuttering through the words.

"Sin from thy lips? Oh, a trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again," Ashton proclaims, his hands making big, dramatic movements with his words. This time, the kiss isn't as long or drawn out, but instead a sweet, chaste kiss. One second there, the next leaving Luke's lips tingling, desperate for more.

"You kiss by.." Luke trails off, forgetting his line. His key line in the play, and he's forgotten it. Of fucking course he would. "You kiss by uh-me? You kiss by me."

Luke can see the shit-eating grin that Ashton is working hard to keep off his face at Luke's fuck-up, because the line definitely wasn't  _You kiss by me,_  but instead  _You kiss by the book_ , and both of them knew that. But both of them also knew that that kiss definitely had all to do with Luke's fuck up.

**....**

They kiss three more times in the play. Three more beautiful, wonderful times. And Luke cherishes every minute of each. And upon the third kiss, he almost wishes he could stop time. And he silently thanks the genius person who decided that plays should run two nights in a row and have two performances, because really, that just meant he could kiss Ashton 5 more times.

They do a bow together at the end, and Luke's parents are somewhere in the audiences screaming for him and holding up roses, and he's incredibly proud of what they've all done. More so, he's incredibly proud of Ashton.

**....**

The show the next night goes on the same, everyone's incredibly giddy at the end, and Luke is totally not smiling just because he got to kiss Ashton 5 times, making that a grand total of 11 kisses in his lifetime. Totally not. Okay, so maybe a little.

There's a huge wrap party being held at Feldy's house after clean up, and everyone in the cast, including the trumpet player, Calum, is invited.

"So, have you been proved to that Ashton is a nice guy?" Luke nudges Michael as he sweeps up the last of confetti from the small stage and tosses it into the trash.

"Eh, I guess. Looks like he was treating you pretty nice out there on stage, if you know what I mean," Michael laughs, wiggling his eyebrows and tossing his broom and pan backstage where the rest of them go.

"So you think he's nice?" Luke repeats, grinning a little.

"Yeah, I said that," Michael nods slowly, furrowing his eyes at Luke's growing excitement.

"So that means you have to ask Calum out! You remember our bet. No going back on it now," Luke almost jumps up and down, clapping his hands together.

"Oh, my god..." Michael groans, slapping a hand to his forehead as he follows Luke to the locker room. "Just remove your stupid makeup and shut up about Calum."

Luke rolls his eyes as he watches himself in the mirror, wiping off all the stupid makeup from his face. He silently says a prayer of thanks that he doesn't have to wear the stupid stuff ever again. Hopefully not, at least. "A deals a deal, Michael."

"Yeah, well, it's not like you're gonna ask Ashton out. So I don't see why I have to be the one asking someone out here," Michael grumbles, slouching back against the wall as he changes back into his normal clothes.

"Who knows. Stranger things have happened, haven't they? I mean, I've already kissed Ashton like....eleven times," Luke shrugs, turning around to face Michael.

"Such a slut, you are," Michael tsks, laughing a little at his own joke, "kissing before you're even dating the guy."

They both change into normal clothes and head out to Luke's car, then make their way to Feldy's, where the party has already started. Of course, it's not like the high school parties on television. One, because they're a bunch of theater geeks; two, because there's only, like, seven of them; and three, because the host of the party is at least fifty years old. But that definitely doesn't make Luke any less excited.

As soon as they walk in, the sound of something from the Wicked soundtrack is playing throughout some surround sound speakers, and Luke really isn't surprised to see Ashton humming along to the music and dancing by himself while making himself some cheese and crackers.

"I'll go check on Calum's sexuality and get back to you, alright, buddy," Luke whispers to Michael before skipping over to Ashton's direction.

"Hello, my Romeo," Luke jokes, suddenly feeling extremely giddy in the party environment and after two wraps of the show.

"And hello, my...Juliet," Ashton nods toward Luke, a grin enveloping his face, and his eyes wrinkling at the corners in just the way Luke loves.

"I have a question for you, Mr. Montague," Luke smirks, continuing their little game.

"And I probably have an answer, Mrs...Mr? Capulet?" Ashton giggles with his words, eyes trailing down Luke's body in a joking manner, but it still sends tingles right down Luke's spine.

"Your friend Calum...what team does he play for?" Luke asks, leaning back against the wall beside the snack table, watching Ashton pick out various cheeses for his crackers.

"Um, well... he's on the football team at our school. And I mean, he's in marching-"

"No, no, no silly. Like...boys? Girls?" Luke laughs loudly at Ashton's misinterpretation.

"Oh! Oh," Ashton says, suddenly realizing. And Luke sees something flash across Ashton's face that he's never really seen before. Something that reminds him of something protective? "Uh, I think he's just Calum, you know? Kinda plays for his own team. Whatever floats his boat on a good day, I guess. Why? Are you...?"

"No! God, no. No," Luke shakes his head quickly, suddenly realizing why Ashton was so awkward around the subject. Of course he thought Luke was asking for himself. "Um, Michael. He's...interested?"

Ashton smiled brightly, nodding slowly. "Figures."

"What do you mean?" Luke laughs a little, grabbing a piece of cheese from Ashton's plate of crackers and cheese and popping it into his mouth, smirking at the frown on Ashton's face.

"Nothing. I've seen the looks that Michael gives him though. Looks at him like he's some king or something whenever he plays trumpet. Kinda like the way you look at me," Ashton winks, popping a piece of cheese into his own mouth.

And Luke makes some sort of choked noise because  _fuck, was he really that obvious with this crush?_

"I'm kidding, Hemmings! I'm kidding. Chill," Ashton laughs, and apparently Luke showed his concern bright on his face at the way Luke laughs at his reaction.

"You're an asshole," Luke rolls his eyes and turns on his heel to go find Michael, but upon seeing him with Calum sitting on the couch, he assumes he doesn't even need to tell Michael this newfound information. He can tell by both of their body language and the way they're practically eye-fucking that Michael has probably already figured out himself.

Luke turns back around to face Ashton and smiles, nudging him to look over at Michael and Calum, who are now definitely flirting to the point of no return. Ashton shakes his head and lets out a breathy laugh at the two.

"Do you, uh, do you wanna go outside? We can look at the stars or something romantic in the true Romeo and Juliet style," Ashton suggests, a half-joking tone to his voice as he tosses his plate into the trash can beside him and already begins making his way toward the back door that leads to the back patio before Luke has a chance to answer him.

"Yeah," Luke says, even though his answer doesn't really matter because he's already following Ashton out the door before he gets the full word out of his mouth.

Ashton shuts the door softly behind him, and the noise inside can still be heard, but the sounds are muffled now by crickets and the night air around them.

"Nice, isn't it?" Luke mumbles, leaning against the balcony of the porch patio and looking down over it to the green grass that looks black in the night year.

Ashton just hums in response and they both sit there in silence for quite a while. It's nice, really, and Luke enjoys the silence more than he enjoys talking to Ashton. Which seems weird when he really thinks about it, but it's not. He likes the silence because he knows that even with silence, they're having some conversation through body language. It's kind of weird, really, but he just feels that connection with Ashton. And he really, really, really hopes to himself that Ashton feels that too.

"Hey, Luke," Ashton breaks the silence after a few minutes, his words coming out to form somewhat of a question, probably asking if Luke was still listening after the minutes of silence or if he was just totally zoned out.

Luke hums a little in respone and glances over to Ashton, his eyes immeditaly meeting Ashton's.

"I like you," Ashton says softly, a type of gentle-ness under his voice as he speaks the three simple words.

Luke's stomach flips upside down as he nods, agreeing quickly. "I like you, too," he says, his words a little too quick and a lot too giddy.

"Can I...um, can I kiss you?" Ashton asks, as if he has to ask permission after they've already kissed before. But Luke nods before Ashton even has the words out of his mouth, before he even know what Ashton is asking of him. That's really the extent of Luke's crush though-which is all amazing and sad at the same time. Because, really, if Ashton were to ask Luke to do anything, he would do it in a heartbeat.

And Luke's eyes are already fluttered half-shut when Ashton's lips are pressed against his own. He feels Ashton's hand shakily resting under his jaw, not holding it tightly like he did in the play, but instead just gently resting there. It's fragile this time, like Luke was a porcelain doll that Ashton was afraid he'd break. Their lips move perfectly in sync this time, too, unlike their kisses shared in the play where there really wasn't even time to move. But this, this feels right. This feels like it was meant to be. Like Luke was made only with one sole purpose in life and that purpose is to kiss Ashton.

When Ashton pulls away from the kiss, Luke lets out a whimper at the lack of lips on his own, and as if Luke's lips were the opposite end of a magnet, Ashton presses a chaste kiss to his lips before pulling away completely, a smile immediately breaking out on his face.

"Can we pretend this was our first kiss?" Ashton asks, slightly winded from the kiss.

Luke nods quickly, laughing a little under his breath and shaking his head. "You say that like you think there's going to be more."

Ashton's mouth forms a quick oh and he drops his hand from Luke's waist and his jaw and backs up a little and Luke has to hold his composure for a second before he giggles and pulls the boy back in close to him. "I'm only kidding, Ashton! I'm joking, I'm joking," he laughs out, rolling his eyes at Ashton's reaction.

Ashton's fist brushes against Luke's arm then in what's probably meant to be a punch but instead comes across as some flirty high five of the fist and Luke stick his tongue out.

"Just kiss me again," Luke says quickly, and as soon as the words are out of his mouth, Ashton's lips are pressed against his own in some passion-filled kiss.

"You kiss by the book," Luke murmurs, as soon as he pulls apart from the kiss. Ashton giggles and mumbles something dumb about how  _he_   _just can't believe that Luke forgot that line on opening night_  before their lips are pressed together again.

And just standing there, making out on Feldmann's porch with Ashton's hands wrapped around his waist and his own gripped around the older boy's neck, the only light source being the small tiki-torch lit to the left of them, perfectly illuminating Ashton's face where he can make out the best of his features and the stupid, corny Romeo and Juliet puns laying out in the air, Luke can tell that this is going to be  _perfect_.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!!!! i love reading your comments so if you wanna leave some i'd be super ecstatic and also, kudos are always greatly appreciated :-)


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